Tag: 365daysofbiking

March 19th – I rode the canal down through south Walsall, through Tower Hill and down into Birmingham. The canal alternates here between deep, deep cuttings and tall, elevated sections. There are 3 really impressive bridges, and I took time to go up on each one. I was fascinated by the ramshackle brickwork amongst the weather-fissured sandstone, put there to stope the face collapsing. An odd solution.

The going was very heavy – the towpaths are still very muddy and slimy and they need a couple of weeks of decent weather to dry out a bit. The Birmingham Cycle Revolution doesn’t seem to be coming to this line, which is a shame, as it’s a lovely route.

19th March – On the Walsall Canal at Park Hall, having left work early in the afternoon to head to Birmingham in the decent weather, I come upon a small, kitchen sink drama. 

Young cat fancies it’s paw at a little waterfowl: maybe mallard, or even Canada goose. The concentration is huge… the tension… then the cyclist spoils it.

Of course, the birds knew the cat was there. But puss’s ambition was impressive.

March 18th – Gone 6:30pm, and still not dark. I stopped on Catshill Junction Bridge, and took a throwaway shot of the Humphries House flats, looking ghostly in the half-light. 

The more I use it, the happier I am with this camera. There’s clearly a lot more fiddling to be had yet, and I must sit down and read the manual. But for a point and shoot operated by a monkey, it doesn’t do bad.

March 18th -This week has odd weather. Misty, with a perceptible wind, but the air quality is very poor; it seems smoggy like it did about a year ago, but I could be imagining that. The sun seems to have a hard time penetrating the murkiness, but when it does, it’s springlike, and warm.

It makes for decent canal views, that’s for sure.

March 17th – Heading to work on a misty, smoggy morning, the sun trying desperately to break through the murk and light up the day, but not quite managing it.

Spinning down the canal over Bentley Aqueduct, the twin sisters of Wednesbury on the skyline were as beautiful as ever. This view fascinates me.

March 17th – Maybe it’s some chemical in the water, or the heavy urban atmosphere, but a strain of really huge swans have started breeding in Walsall Arboretum pool. 

It’s been a long time since we had boating on Hatherton Lake; tragedies and expense seemed to finish it for good – but a private operator has tendered to operate these cute pedaloes – and why not?

Users will have life jackets, and a whale of a time I’m sure. A great idea. Just watch out for Brer Alligator, and of course, the famous Plastic Hippo who dwells grumpily in the deep.

I could actually be persuaded off my bike if someone could fit one of these things with an engine. I could cruise about town, in a flying hat and goggles. 

Stately, indeed.

Perhaps they should try it with the Mayor first – I can really see it suiting Smithy’s style – and we could flog the new jag. Win-win.

March 16th – The old Effluent Disposal/Leigh Environmental/Sarp/Veolia site in Walsall Wood, itself formerly the Walsall Wood Colliery remains empty, but secure. This once controversial plant, where huge quantities of industrial waste were poured into a former mineshaft deep under Walsall Wood, was often the seen of protest and trouble, then when dumping stopped here, it was laboratories and main offices. The plant flipped between a few companies over the years, and the last one – Veolia – moved to larger, new build premises a few years ago in Cannock.

The site is very secure, with caretakers living on site, and seems to be just quietly decaying.

There was talk of a food company buying these premises and moving production here, but I think they must have realised the former use probably wasn’t conducive to good customer feeling, and the place is still like a set from Day of the Triffids.

I would imagine this plant will be quite hard to sell.

February16th – I passed St. Johns Church, in Walsall Wood, early afternoon, and a bright flash caught my eye as I passed. Doubling back, I saw the sign was a QR code.

For goodness sakes.

I’m not a fan of QR codes; by the time you’ve downloaded an app, fiddled around scanning the code and waited for it to decode, you could just go to the site from a printed, simple web address.

Predictably, this piece of obfuscating technological flapdoodle leads to this website, so there’s no need to scan it yourselves…

March 15th – To compound a bad ride, I had to go up to Walsall Wood, and my beer magnet was at full power. Excellent, you might think. Fourteen reds in a loose group, on the field margin along the canal that borders Grange Farm, Walsall Wood. Largest group I’d seen for a while, and there were some impressive specimens.

Just one snag: there was a thin scrub-copse and barbed wire fence stopping me getting through the trees to get good photos. Immensely frustrating.

Aaargh!

March 15th – The sunset the previous evening that promised so much failed to deliver anything but grey murk the next day. It was overcast, grey, cold and windy, and while I was out and about mid afternoon, it rained. I hate days like this, particularly so close to spring. You feel almost cheated.

I span round Chasewater, and noted the waterfowl now seem to have claimed the castle as their own, but was troubled that I could only spot one of the three white geese. Hope the other two are OK, but they must be quite old now.

On the other hand, last years cygnets are all doing well on the big pool, and accumulated, must number more than 30. With few natural predators and national treasure status, one wonders how long their population can go on expanding…

The water level seems to be increasing gradually, too; maybe 11 inches to go now. I somehow doubt we’ll see Chasewater overflow this spring, but it’s at a good healthy level right now.